Trends in the management of registered sexual offenders across England and Wales: a geographical approach to the study of sexual offending

Abstract

Social scientists, and geographers in particular, have long been interested in examining spatial patterns of offending in order to generate a “geography” of crime and criminality. This paper examines what value, if any, a geographical approach to the study of sexual offending might offer. Utilising published official data from England and Wales it presents for the first time geographical analyses of the registration, risk assessment and management of Registered Sexual Offenders (RSOs) across 42 Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangement (MAPPA) areas. In doing so it considers and evaluates the methodological issues pertaining to the use of such data and such a geographical approach. We conclude that geographical interpretations of both the incidence of RSOs and the rates of risk allocations between MAPPA areas provide valuable insights and raise new questions about the way in which RSOs are managed nationally and are thus worthy of further exploration.

Keywords:

• Sexual offending
• MAPPA
• public protection
• crime geography
• crime mapping

Notes

1. Similar arrangements exist in Scotland and Northern Ireland. However, they each have, in the main, their own legal, judicial and criminal justice systems.

2. MAPPA areas are aligned to existing police force areas across England and Wales. But these regional areas are very distinct from other administrative geographies that currently exist in England and Wales. For example, there are currently 42 MAPPA and police force areas in England and Wales compared with 11 strategic health authorities (until 2013) and 368 local authorities.

3. While we are not uncritical of the use of the term “offender” in relation to individuals who are not necessarily still involved in criminal offending, we use the term Registered Sexual Offender, or RSO for short, within this paper, merely due to its use as a category within the official MAPPA documentation.

4. As noted before, the criminal justice systems of Scotland and Northern Ireland are very distinct to that of England and Wales and, in the main, have their own legal systems. Therefore, the analysis and discussion presented here relate to England and Wales alone, even though all four countries are part of the UK.

5. Additional data from the MAPPA annual reports were also analysed. This included the number of Sexual Offences Prevention Orders and the number of RSOs who breached their notification requirements, including the penalty sanctioned. However, space does not allow for the presentation and discussion of these additional analyses, and these will form the basis of future reporting.

6. Population estimates are based on a census taken every 10 years in the UK. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) then calculates annual estimates of the resident population for each year between censuses – these are referred to as mid-year population estimates. These are routinely published for each local authority across England and Wales. Since the MAPPA data used in this analysis fell between Censuses the analysis used the ONS mid-year population estimates. Population estimates for each MAPPA areas were derived by aggregating the 2008 mid-year population estimates from the local authorities that constitute each MAPPA area. The year 2008 was selected to represent the mid-point of the MAPPA data available.

7. This has a correlation of R ² = .84.

8. This has a correlation of only R ² = .24.

9. CRC will consist of private, voluntary sector and mutual organisations, commissioned by Payment by Results.